Annual Nighthawk Watch
A Community Science Initiative – All Welcome
Join the group on the stone bridge on August 27th – Oct 6th, 2022 from 5:30 pm to dusk.
In late August 2017, Four Harbors Audubon Society (4HAS) launched what has become known as the Goatsucker Initiative. The idea for the Initiative was sparked on October 6, 2016 when a great number of Common Nighthawks (Chordeiles minor) were observed migrating over the pond at Frank Melville Memorial Park, and to the delight of all, dropped down to feed at very close range. That momentous day, two FHAS board members independently, but drawn together by the nighthawks’ aerial insect-catching maneuvers, watched and counted at the stone bridge. The following fall, 4HAS voted to establish the Frank Melville Stone Bridge Nighthawk Watch, an annual census to estimate Common Nighthawk migratory numbers at this site, and one that we hope will contribute to better understanding nighthawk population trends.
The Goatsucker Initiative is much more than counting nighthawks each autumn at the Stone Bridge. All three members of the Caprimulgidae (Goatsucker) Family on Long Island — the Chuck-will’s-Widow (Antrostomus carolinensis), Whip-poor-will (Antrostomus vociferus), and the Common Nighthawk — are in steep decline in New York State. Our goal is to prevent this fascinating family of birds from disappearing completely, as sadly has been the case for many other North American bird species in the recent past.
Join us each year, August 27 to October 6, from 5:30 pm to dusk on Setauket’s Stone Bridge.
Read a synopsis of our data collected from 2017-2019, recently published in the NY State Ornithological Association’s The Kingbird.
You can also view the nightly counts, as well as read an article that appeared in the Times-Beacon Newspaper or our petition to the DEC.
